Technology Reporter

Telstra will trial fixed wireless NBN services with a view to launching them in mid 2013, executives said at an investor day in Melbourne.

Chief executive David Thodey said the company was ‘‘also considering our options for satellite services,’’ and was looking at reselling NBN Co's satellite and fixed wireless products, which will be rolled out to hundreds of thousands of Australians before the fibre optic network is done.

Chief financial officer Andy Penn also confirmed Telstra's 28c dividend was no longer guaranteed and the board would return to half-yearly guidance. The two-year guarantee provided "stability" during the NBN negotiations, but was no longer appropriate, he said.

On the recent acquisition of Adam Internet, David Thodey said Telstra looked at setting up its own Jetstar-like brand, a cut price version of Telstra, a few years ago, but it was not the right time.

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Adam will help Telstra get market share in segments where it does not feel it has a big enough market share. Buying the brand was cheaper than setting up a new brand, Mr Penn added.

Last week, Telstra announced it was buying Adelaide-based Adam Internet to use as a new national brand for cut-price internet and telephony services.

Telstra's market research found Adam Internet was a strong brand with good customer service and a value for money plans, said the group managing director of innovation, products and marketing at Telstra, Kate McKenzie.

Telstra is rumoured to have paid between $50 million and $60 million for the parochial private company, which currently serves less than 100,000 residential, business and government customers only in South Australia. It had profits of $3.2 million in 2011-12 and 2010-11.

Mr Thodey also revealed Telstra has 820,000 devices using its 4G network, about half of which are handsets and the other half mobile broadband devices. For the first time in several years growth in mobile data came from increasing internet use of smartphones rather than laptops or tablets, executive director of mobiles, Warwick Bray, said.

Revenue from mobile users has fallen to an average of $61.51 per month in 2011-12, down from $63.95 in 2010-11.

Mr Bray identified eight threats to revenue from SMS, such as Apple's iMessage, Whatsapp and Skype, which all send messages as data not individual texts, and said Telstra will fight this revenue loss by either adding more SMS to plans or increasing the cost of data. It will also consider building it's own messaging service.